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Become serial: cashier killer strikes again The chief
turned back and entered his office. Despite his experience and his balanced
character, this time his heart was pumping faster than ever. He was trying to
calm down when the silence was interrupted by the sound of a known melody. He
took his phone from the desk, turned with a face to the door and clicked on the
green button.

- Hello, Mr.
Mayor - said the chief.

- Hello
chief. Do you have anything interesting for me?

- We have a
list with four suspects, sir.

- You will
have to arrest someone chief, I think I was clear enough yesterday, and you
will have to do it quickly.

- But Mr.
Mayor, it'll be a matter of guesswork. We're police, we have to defend the law
and I don't want us to arrest innocent people. - answered the chief, knowing
that this won't have any effect.

- Listen,
chief. It is 9 o'clock now. You have two hours to identify the one to be
arrested. Then you will act quickly. I expect you to hold a press conference at
noon.

- Mr. Mayor,
I don't think that this is the right approach. - said the chief while making a
sign with his hand to Eric and Linda to wait in front of the door.

- Chief, I
think I was clear. I will wait for your call, because I will have to attend
that press conference. - said the Mayor and ended the call.

The police
chief put his hand over his mouth and closed his eyes. He moved his fingers to
his nose then took a deep breath and opened the door of his office.

- Good morning Eric - said detective Clark with a note of desperation. - How are you today?
- Same old Linda. I'm doing my best on this case, having sleepless nights, hoping for something to come out of nothing and help us to find this guy. - Eric Adams was looking almost like a zombie, with big dark circles under his eyes, the color of his skin was mixture between white, light blue and yellow, his eyes were red, his hair was dirty and not combed for days.
- Get yourself up Eric. You don't have to surrender to this guy. We'll find him.
- Linda, what else we could do? You know that we've made everything we could. We've checked every single clue over and over again and still we are standing in front of the same list with suspects and asking ourselves the same question “Who is the killer?”.
- Come on Eric, you didn't become a detective to give up on cases like this. We've revealed more convoluted cases. Just remember that the mayor gave us a medal for merit in fighting against the crime in the city. You are still the best detective in our department and this guy will end up in prison, I believe in you.

These words gave a note of confidence to detective Adams and he almost smiled. Linda noticed that and immediately grabbed the momentum:
- Eric, come with me. Let's talk again with the delivery man Henry Turner. I think there is something he is not telling us.
It was a hard month. Day after day the media was shooting with leading pages and leading titles:

Linda Clark and Eric Adams were at the funeral park, staying just few meters away from the bereaved of Mary White and watching the funeral procession. None of the suspects were there, except the husband Bruce White. It was a moment full of sorrow and sadness. The most frustrating moment for the police officers was the fact that the murderer was still out there.

One week later, a week full of interrogations and clues that leaded to a dead end, officers Clark and Adams were still far away from uncovering the mystery of the murder of Mary White. Detective Linda Clark was at the police department when one of her colleagues said:

- We received an assignment for a murder in the industrial area. A cashier was killed.
- Wait, what? - said the surprised detective - Could you repeat?
- There was a murder in the industrial area. Woman was killed, a cashier. Me and my partner received the assignment.
- Could you call me, when you arrive at the crime since. We are still working on a murder of a cashier with Adams, but in other district.
- OK Linda, I'll do it.

It was already half past eight and Mary White
just finished her daily shift at the local super market. She closed the doors,
cleaned the floor, made the daily report and closed the cash desk. Missis White
went to the back room to get dressed and then went out of the shop and locked
the door. Mary lived three miles away in a pledged small house, located in a so
called ghetto neighborhood, with her husband and their eight year old son. She
took her usual way to the near bus station, where she took bus number N45. Five
stops away, she got off the bus and greeted the driver. Mary headed through one
dark block without even blink with her eye. She was so used to the way, because
she worked already 4 years and a half in the market. Missis White heard a
strange noise coming from a group of dumpsters, but did not give any attention
to it and continue walking. Some meters away, she heard steps behind and this
time she made a scared grimace. Mary did not like the neighborhood, because a
lot of crimes happened there, but her family could not afford a better placed
house. She speeded up the pace and the steps disappeared for a moment. When
Mary heard them again she gave a look back, but she could not distinguish a
clear image in the dark. The sound of the steps was still there. Her heartbeat
accelerated and a dose of adrenaline pumped her body. The sound of the steps
was overtaking her. She became more and more scared and almost started running
when the steps disappeared once again. Mary was full of emotions. She was sacred
and puzzled. The cashier continued walking with a bit of speed. She was still
not hearing the harassing steps and this was soothing her. Forty meters away
she noticed a strange black shadow on the parallel block. This time a double dose
of adrenaline rushed through her veins. She was almost at the end of the next
building and she took her look right, surprisingly the shadow disappeared. Missis
White heard the steps again. Mary was very scared, so scared that she started
running, but a scary shout make her halt. She heard "Don't run Mary".
Just one sentence shouted by a man. A lot of questions rushed through her mind:
"Who was this guy?", "How the hell he knows my name?" and
"Which way should I take?”. Mary tried to keep calm and to get a proper decision.
She looked around and then realized that she knew the place, so she started
running through the labyrinth of the dark blocks thinking only for the way back
to her home. While running Mary took her phone off her pocket and dialed 911.
At this moment she saw an illuminated streetlight. She ran to the place and
grabbed the pole of the lamp. A voice of salvation came through the phone:

After long
and tiring investigation detective Jones and young police officer Collins
finally decided that they have enough evidences to put the case in court. They
went to the local prosecutor Jacob Clark, who was fighting his way to become
regional prosecutor as soon as possible. Clark earned good reputation by
putting a lot of criminals in prison and finished almost every of his cases
with a guilty sentence.